Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mr Antufyev, I'd like you to tell me about the situation in the region since the beginning of the year, in particular the economic, social and employment situation. Are wages being paid regularly both in private and public sectors? Which of the existing problems do you consider particularly serious, and what can we do to help you?
Sergei Antufyev: Mr Putin, the first quarter of the year showed that the situation is gradually improving, judging by revenues of the consolidated budget, which were 124% above the target figure for the first quarter. Most importantly, the profit tax totalled 146%, which is a good indicator showing that the situation in the non-financial sector is improving.
Industrial production index for the first two months of the year was 117% compared to the same period of 2009. This is a positive sign indicating recovery. The situation on the labour market as of January 1, 2010 was tense, with 5.8 applications per vacancy. The current figure is 3.8.
Although the unemployment level is still 2%, the above signals show that the situation is getting better, largely with the support of the government-approved programme for easing tensions on the labour market.
Vladimir Putin: How much money have you been issued?
Sergei Antufyev: Last year we received 110 million roubles, which allowed us to create over 8,000 social jobs and organise retraining.
Two of our auto components enterprises had especially big problems. One of them is the Roslavl plant, with nearly 5,000 workers, which produces brakes and fuel equipment. We had to give over 2,000 of them social jobs. This cost us over 20 million roubles, but we have saved the plant, which is the largest in the city, and maintained social stability there.
Another such plant is located in Smolensk.
In other words, the programme has helped us to keep the situation in hand.
Vladimir Putin: Saving the people, professionals, is the main thing, because we will need all of them when industrial recovery begins.
Sergei Antufyev: Mr Putin, we have one more unique company, the diamond-cutting plant JSC Kristall. The situation there was really tense, because the diamond market plummeted; it nearly collapsed. The government decision to allocate 5 billion roubles helped us to preserve the workers and, most importantly, professionals, because it takes several years of working at the plant to become a professional.
If we had lost them, we would have lost a company that annually contributed over 10 billion roubles to the regional product. In other words, the government's anti-crisis policy was very effective. Thank you for helping the regions.
Vladimir Putin: What about healthcare?
Sergei Antufyev: Over the past two years, since you appointed me governor of the region, we have completed the surgical wing of the regional hospital, which remained unfinished for eight years. Last year we commissioned two outpatient clinics. We have joined federal programmes of vascular diseases, received equipment worth 252 million roubles, added another 80 million [from the regional funds] and established three specialised post-stroke departments. We also set up a regional [medical] centre and joined the Blood programme. We have been issued 105 million roubles from the federal budget, added funds from the regional budget, and bought mobile blood donation banks.
We also have a breast cancer problem, and so we used regional funds to buy seven mammography units. You are aware of this problem. Another specific disease is tuberculosis, which is, unfortunately, a social disease. We have adopted a regional tuberculosis programme.
Of course, we receive considerable assistance from the Healthcare national priority project. Thanks to it, we have raised the average monthly salary of doctors to 23,000 roubles and other medical personnel to nearly 12,000 roubles. This helped us to stop people from quitting, and people who are well paid have a better attitude to their jobs.
Vladimir Putin: Have you received allocations from the Housing and Utilities Fund for repairing residential blocks and the municipal infrastructure?
Sergei Antufyev: We were among the last to join the programme in 2008, but since then we have received 1.2 billion roubles. This year we have presented and received approval for a programme of housing and infrastructure repairs and for resettling people from dilapidated buildings. The programme is estimated at 880 million roubles. Last year we resettled over 1,000 people from 78 flats and demolished 17,000 square metres of dilapidated housing, or nearly 25% of the total.
We intend to keep up the pace this year, planning to reach 50%. I believe that it was a very effective programme stipulated in Federal Law No 185-FZ. I think we have made a breakthrough in the housing and utilities sector thanks to that programme.
Vladimir Putin: You mean as regards resettlement and repairs.
Sergei Antufyev: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: Does anyone do anything about roads in the region?
Sergei Antufyev: Roads are an acute problem. Knowing that we must surge ahead in resolving it, we have taken out a loan this year...
Vladimir Putin: You can't surge ahead on such roads.
Sergei Antufyev: This problem has two parts: lack of funds and the quality of construction.
Vladimir Putin: You mean the quality of construction materials.
Sergei Antufyev: We build a road, but it becomes unusable again a year later. We will never have enough money if we build such bad roads. Our road-building companies are offended by this attitude, but I tell them that we will never build good roads with their (obsolete) technology and shoddy work. Moreover, the road network in Smolensk and the Smolensk Region is large, because the region is a transit territory. We have 700 km of federal roads and over 8,000 km of regional roads.
Vladimir Putin: You must focus on this problem now. This is an apparent problem.